"From Grief to Purpose" - Commentary by Tony Seton

From Grief to Purpose

The commemorations of Nine-Eleven brought to the surface the wrenching images of that awful day three years ago. The death toll at the World Trade Center was 2,749. Another 184 died at the Pentagon. Forty more died in a field in Pennsylvania. In the general scheme of things, the death toll isn’t much -- more Americans die from cigarette smoke in three days -- but the cost to our country is almost incalculable. The genie of innocence will never be put back in its bottle.

The terrorists, probably never realizing the potential of their plan, wreaked incredible havoc on our society. Out of fear and anger we have come apart as a nation, delivering ourselves into the hands of corrupt leaders who have taken advantage of our confusion to implement their own agenda of control and venality.

A cowed Congress approved the grossly misnamed Patriot Act without reading it, allowing the inJustice Department to arrest and imprison without the essential rights guaranteed by our treasured Constitution more than a thousand people, none of whom had apparently committed any crimes, certainly not terrorism. And The Bush Boy who diverted us from the war against the terrorists and mired us in the lethal morass that used be Iraq is still somehow, unconscionably, supported by half the populace.

We took a wrong turn after the terrorist attacks. We failed to ask what provoked them. We blindly followed a depraved president and ovine legislators. It is understandable, of course, but it was not the right course.

We owe it to ourselves and posterity to reform our great nation, to cast out the scum who have sucked the life out of our unique American purpose, and to take responsibility for our direction. It’s not too late, but the more time we delay, the further off course we go. If we’re serous about our future, the time to act is now.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.